But what we really need to know is: Which came first, the peahen or the egg? ;) Shawn Nick wrote: >>Form follows function, but I think form is often the inspiration which creates new function. I often find that good innovations come from ideas which I think would "look nice". However, there are maybe some ornamentations which are are incorporated, just to "show-off". Peacocks big fancy tail helps attract the peahen by the sheer flagrant wastefullness of it all. If the cock is healthy enough to be able to produce such dazzling display, he must have a lot of other things going for him as well. If he put his energy into things other than growing a stupid tail, his life would probably be much easier. But then he wouldn't get the chicks. So is his "show-off" tail there for aesthetic reasons or functional? Function is not always immediately obvious. As birds go, peacocks are slow, don't fly all that well, and are obvious targets for preditors, yet their continued survival suggests that their highly aesthetic design functions very well.>> -- Shawn W. Baker 0 46°53'N © 2000 ____©/______ 114°06'W ~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^\ ,/ /~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ baker_at_montana.com 0 http://www.missoulaconcrete.com/shawn/ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Apr 14 2000 - 11:02:05 PDT
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